Despite what you might think right now, you weren’t born with a predilection towards one car brand or another. Just like music or any other affinities, you are inevitably shaped up by your parents and the rest of the environment growing up. How all this affected one’s later buying decisions remained largely unknown. Until now.
A recent ongoing survey held in the United States of America wanted to see how children are influenced by the brand of the car their parents drive when the time comes to buy one of their own. Unsurprisingly, the results show that there is a link and, as far as percentages go, a pretty strong one.
The researchers studied the national survey responses related to auto ownership of more than 4,300 adult children matched to nearly 2,600 parents. Survey data from the families were collected every two years from 1999 to 2011. What they found out was this: children are 39 percent more likely to buy a particular car brand if their parents also bought that brand.
It’s too early to draw conclusions but it’s nice to see some actual data on something we all kind of knew or, at least, guessed. We knew we were right and now there’s scientific data to prove it.
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So, to all the kids whose parents drive a Mercedes-Benz, there’s reason to be very, very excited: chances are you’ll be driving one some day. And we’re not talking about the family’s same 30 year old Merc here.
The implications of this study are pretty easy to predict: automakers should try to hook young buyers with the small prices of their entry-level models so they will become loyal to their car brand. Later, they will be the ones to buy the more up-scale (and more expensive) models and, hopefully, also pass on their love of said brand to their children.
Source: Michigan State University via autoblog.com
